The Politics of Decline: Understanding Postwar Britain

A examination of the politicized economic decline in post-war Britain Explicit linkage of decline to British political debate. Examples of how historians have used decline politically. Evidence that British decline on the 1970s was less disastrous than originally perceived. The key aim of the book is to show how British economic decline has always been a highly politicized concept, forming a central part of post-war political argument. In doing so, Tomlinson reveals how the term has been used in such ways as to advance particular political causes. 'Decline' is a word commonly used in discussions of post-war Britain, and many books have been written explaining the reasons behind that alleged decline. By contrast, "The Politics of Decline" focuses on the politics underpinning this notion of decline. Tomlinson analyzes how this term first came into common use in the 1950s and 1960s, how it developed over succeeding decades and how the Left and Right, as well as historians have deployed it.